Starting to stack up marten, was wondering who everyone was selling to, and who was giving the best prices. Should have 40 or so to sell.

Been a few years since I trapped any.

Arctic raw fur was paying $80 for interior beauties

Are you using Lens old sets? He made lift pole sets and trapped in your area?
Bill Wivoda is buying most of the marten around here. Arctic Raw Fur Co.

No, Len said he trapped further South from where I do. I did get a lot of advice from him, he's very knowledgeable. Those tip up sets work good. I've never found anyone's old sets where I trap, my trapping partner and I make our own boxes. We started using 155 conibears for the bigger opening for the big males who refused to go in a 110 or 120, worked wonders for getting them to commit. About to switch over to 160 conibears to have a better chance at young wolverine getting caught in my marten sets, and catch fewer female marten so they can have babies. Thanks for the heads up on Bill Wivoda. What's his average price?

Just saw SE.current's post on the price. Thanks.

Len was planning on trapping this year, but his plans got messed up. He might run my line the last week of the season, as I'll be out of town, and he'll be here buying antlers. We'll see. He had trapped some beaver for bait earlier, gave me three since he won't need them. Nice of him.

Nice looking marten

Just to be clear. when you see $80 for marten. That is what buyer will for the largest and best. What you should be asking buyers. What is your average you are paying? Fairbanks buyers have been buying around mid to high $60 per skin.

I just averaged $45 on 56 marten in MT sale. Sale average was 39

Different marten altogether.

That's a really good price for Cascade/Rocky Mountain marten. Historically, that should put Alaska marten in the $75 range.
Like AK Viking said, they are a completely different animal; fur-wise that is.

I just wanted to give some numbers to compare. I realize they are different in size. One day I hope to trap in Alaska and catch marten.

Not so much size but fur quality. Here in Maine we have a nicely furred Marten but most don't grade over large in size.

Size is not the issue between cascade/rocky mountain marten and their northern cousins. They are different subspecies, and have quite different fur quality characteristics, the americana being superior to the caurina.

Explain how 160s will catch less female marten? Are you trapping a relatively small area of marten habitat? Or a large area with much of it untrapped?

160's are a larger trap, giving more room for smaller females to avoid the triggers. I will still catch females for sure, but if I can lower the percentage of them a little, and up the percentage of males a little, I'll be happy. Set out 5 Sauvageau 160's at the end of my line on Monday, yesterday checked, had 3 of them connect with 2 XXL males and 1 XXXL male that had been refusing to go in 155's for several weeks. The other two had small marten tracks going into them, no bait, and were not set off. I am trapping a large area.

So, a list of Marten fur buyers in Alaska,
Alaska Range Trapping Supplies
Arctic Raw Fur
Alaska raw fur

Anyone else Y'all know of?

Maybe if You used 220's You would get all xxxl.

Alaska Raw fur

Bumped into one of the locals coming back home on Saturday, he said he used to trap marten with 220's just so he wouldn't miss young of the year wolverine, said he caught lots male marten, fewer female marten. There aren't many XXXL marten out there, even in our neck of the woods.

I have caught quite a few in 220's before our regulations went to (This word is unacceptable on Trapperman) due to Lynx issue and have known a few guy's that ran 220's exclusively for Marten- Fisher. Works well when set on a pole with exposed bait as the birds act as an attractant. But I really don't think the size of the trap has much to do with refusal. In this part of the country setting on a pole will cut down on females, but You trap hungrier country.

I seriously doubt 120s cause refusals. I have caught fisher and even otter in 120 traps. Obviously, the otter were incidental, and getting that head out was challenging. And I have caught more marten in 280s set for otter than i could remember.
If you are trying to avoid catching female marten, the best way for that is not setting. elevated sets can possibly lower catch rate of females, but even that is debatable.

^^^^^^^ You forget this is FT's old stomping ground where marten refuse to climb.

My trapping partner and I talked to Len at length about the marten in this area 7 years ago before we started trapping, that's why we use the tip up set a foot above the snow, because they won't often climb in this neck of the woods. Still had a lot of big males refuse to stick there heads in 110 and 120 conibears, would walk right up to the entrance and look, but not go in. Since we started using 155 conibears 5 years ago, and experimenting with 160's this year, we get far fewer refusals from big males. It wasn't that they had to climb why the big males were hesitant to commit, as we were setting just off the ground, but rather the small traps.

Catching a smaller percentage of females is really just a good side effect of setting larger traps for bigger male marten and wolverines, the main goals. Didn't set out to catch fewer females, but seeing the smaller tracks go into the boxes, and then coming back out on occasion, I catch a few less females for sure.

I love tweaking things to work as well as I can, going to experiment with Len's marten snare set next year.

So, a list of Marten fur buyers in Alaska,
Alaska Range Trapping Supplies
Arctic Raw Fur
Alaska raw fur

Anyone else Y'all know of?

Why not foothold under the bucket or box? Since you're using tip ups. I'm skeptical you're gaining any benefit not catching females. As you said, large area with much of it untrapped.
When a change in marten numbers comes, either up or down, it will be due to factors beyond your control. Such as changes in microtine numbers.

I averaged $70 on 36 marten with Wivoda. That included 4 with damage.

The Marten market appears to be picking up nicely. lower 48 Marten just averaged $50+ in Idaho's sale.

$53 in Wyoming today. the best part about that there is a season in the southern part of the state that opens Oct. 1st. And people start trapping them then? Marten market keeps getting stronger.

I just looked at my results online for the FHA auction today.
I had 52 marten on this sale, 100% sold.
My top was $122 and my average was $94.
Interesting that the pales sold as high or higher the the darks !